Captain Eagle
=Origin= The son of an Army colonel, the only thing that John Eagle knew, even early in life, was the military. His father, a decorated hero of World War II, instilled in him a strict sense of honor, loyalty and duty, and these three tenets have led Eagle his entire life. There was little doubt that when he turned eighteen he would join up himself, and indeed he did, enlisting in the Army as soon as he was old enough even as inevitable conflict in Southeast Asia appeared on the horizon. Landing overseas, Eagle made quick friends and strong bonds with fellow young soldiers, becoming a defacto leader and rallying point for many of the inexperienced boys who landed, not sure what to expect. As someone who actively volunteered for duty and knew exactly what he was getting into, he took many fellow recruits under his wing, helping them through an exceptionally challenging transition from civilian life to active duty military in a foreign country. Very quickly his name became a source of motivation and it certainly helped that it represented patriotism and freedom, two things that were very important to the young men he fought alongside. Young John Eagle grew in those first few months and evolved into the leader he would eventually become. It didn’t take long for Eagle’s life to completely change. Systematically over the next six months, many of the close friends he had made in his early days were killed in action, and as close to his men as he was, he felt each and every loss personally. Along with honor, loyalty, and duty, for the first time, he also felt another key element of military life - loss. Making it a point to remember each of his young friends, he started a journal, documenting the names and his memories of every fellow soldier he crossed paths with, but instead of feeling sorry for himself and others, he took his favorite aspects of those teammates and devoted time to improving that aspect about himself. In essence taking the best parts of friends he lost and making them a part of him. As the war went on, he served several tours and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a Second Lieutenant and serving as a liaison with many different Special Forces groups, including the Army Rangers and top secret Navy SEALs. Working alongside several special operations detachments, Lieutenant Eagle helped lead several surgical strikes against foreign targets and his name started being spoken in certain hallways in Arlington and Washington, DC. The war came to a close and Lieutenant Eagle found himself back at home, having a hard time dealing with the reaction of the American people to veterans. He withdrew somewhat, devoting his time to his service in the Army and focusing nearly all of his free time on studying command tactics and physical training. It was at this time that he also became interested in falconry and he also was a devout aficionado in Aviary studies, fascinated specifically in hunting birds of his namesake. Hearing about a new top secret program to use trained birds as a method of surveillance and intelligence gathering, Lieutenant Eagle requested to be a part of it and spent a year being indoctrinated by intelligence agencies and trained in the ways of advanced falconeering. It was his idea to try and incorporate eagles into the program not just due to their advanced eyesight, but also in part because of the patriotic symbolism they carried. Although the aviary program didn’t actually ever lead to anything concrete or specific, Lieutenant Eagle had an affinity for the birds and when the government disbanded the project, he ended up bringing one of the eagles to his cabin in the woods and letting it roam there as some kind of sanctuary, occasionally vacationing there to train and condition the animal on his own. Throughout the years leading up to the 1980s, John Eagle spent much of his time in the Middle East working with foreign special operations organizations in crafting and executing anti-terrorist strikes abroad. He quickly became one of the leading military advisors on the threat of militant terrorists and when R.I.O.T. exploded onto the scene it made sense for Washington to bring him in for a briefing. In one of R.I.O.T.’s first strikes, they overtook the African nation of Zambia, and the United States government sent Eagle in to work with a local resistance warlord, General Mamba. Throughout the course of the operation in Zambia, Mamba double-crossed Eagle and the two battled. Gravely injured, losing his hand and one of his eyes, Eagle was brought back to the United States to review the impact R.I.O.T. was having on the global stage. Once firmly entrenched within R.I.O.T., the warlord known as Mamba staged a coup, successfully taking R.I.O.T. over and using it for his own twisted purposes. So impressed were the suits in Washington that they immediately promoted him to Captain and put him in charge of the Eagle Force initiative, a specialized team of anti-terrorism experts put together specifically to battle against the threat of R.I.O.T. It took several years, but eventually Captain Eagle and his team of specialists overcame the R.I.O.T. threat. In a calculated strike, Eagle Force operatives Goldie and Wings seemingly eliminating the leader General Mamba and scattered their forces to the winds. The main threat eliminated, Eagle Force itself went its separate ways, and Captain Eagle settled down somewhat, taking a post at an American military base and finally having time to settle down with a family. Life seemed like it finally held some sense of normalcy. It wouldn’t last. Although General Mamba had seemingly been killed and R.I.O.T. disbanded, a sudden and vengeful attack by the organization killed John Eagle’s wife and seriously injured him, leaving his only daughter in the care of relatives on his wife’s side. Eagle managed to kill all of the attackers during the ambush saving his daughter’s life, though it was too late to prevent the other damage they had done. While the mastermind behind the attack was never discovered, running hypothesis is that Mamba somehow survived and orchestrated this sinister assault as a form of ambush before retiring from active terrorism for good. Eagle himself remained convinced that Mamba had been killed in the 80s and couldn’t help but wonder if someone else was somehow now pulling the strings. As a result of the attack, Captain Eagle retired from active military service and retreated to his cabin in the woods, his only remaining sanctuary from the constant reminders of his earlier life. For his entire career he had managed to turn grief into motivation, but this one last loss hit him far too hard and he truly never recovered. R.I.O.T., however, did recover and indeed many fear is stronger than ever. Brutally executed in his own penthouse apartment, Mamba’s death has signaled a resurgence by the global terrorist organization, and John Eagle has pledged his support to the United States government in revitalizing Eagle Force for the 21st Century. Category:Eagle Force Category:Eagle Force 1981 Category:Eagle Force Returns